My back, my great white back was scored with thirty or forty sharp red welts, regularly patterned as if I’d slept on a bed of nails. Taking a two-fisted grip on my spare tyre, I was able to wrench round some flesh and get a good look at one of these bloodless wounds.
Barnes, moving wide to the left, at last got over a telling cross but Ferdinand completely missed the ball in front of goal. Carlton Palmer drove forward to bring a two-fisted save from Benedettini and the goal-keeper followed up with another save from a Ferdinand header.
Then, quite unexpectedly, he took a clubbing right hand to the head and lost complete co-ordination. He did not react but lay back grasping the top rope. Jones mounted a quick two-fisted assault and the title changed hands in those brief, dramatic seconds. Laing was at pains to stress that at no time did he feel under pressure.